I was actually expecting a pre season meeting sometime near the end of camp with all parties involved.
Both to get Mr Medina's input and offer him a chance to have his say but more importantly to table any and all differences and make sure everyone leaves on the same page.
This surprise meeting was actually called by the owner and I, along with Mgr Kevin Jackson met him early Wednesday morning in late January.
"Gentleman thank you for coming on such short notice. I wanted to inform you of a few things. First off season ticket sales, while not through the roof, are better than expected. and that is with the 11% price increase.
We are well ahead of our financial projections and to that end I wanted to let you know I am raising your budget for baseball ops a further 3 million dollars. That is not only due to the ticket increase but more importantly to the sheer amount of work, the effort that's been put in since day 1. Just as you both know I am as demanding as any owner alive, I am also adamant about rewarding people I feel go above and beyond. The goals we laid out last winter were "long-term". I wanted you guys to not suck this year, that was the only true short-term goal and regardless of our record I know we will not 'suck' for any reason within the baseball ops control. I was hoping you'd be able to garner a top prospect within our first two seasons and I see from the recent Baseball America that not only is our first player ever, Juan Portio, considered a 'top prospect' but many have him at 17 years old as high as top 20. We are a long ways from a top 5 farm system but I have few doubts given what I've seen that it will happen. I told you last winter, and I will reiterate it again today. I expect this team to contend for a league championship by 2009. "
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Well, I can honestly say I never saw this coming. You have seen from the last post he wasn't lying when he was talking about the effort. That's a staple here. Contrary to my old ways I have zero desire to go out and spend this money. Having said that I have increased our scouting budget to 2 million up from 1.28, our dev budget from 1.2 to 1.35 and our draft expenditures sits at 4.58 million. That's where I am hoping to find a use for this extra money. Being able to have the latitude to select an impossible sign late can be a game changer.
I've also attached the game settings for this league's financials. Now that I am no longer a player I want to salaries to NOT be 100s of millions, but rather numbers that are easier to compare and contrast.
